Marcos has a funner than average dentist

NWAEG

We organized the NWAEG international meeting here in Chiapas...

Finca Irlanda

At Finca Irlanda, the first certified organic coffee farm in the world...

Lento, pero avanzando

Our ducklings are hatching!

Saying goodbye to Tía Zoila

Ascending "our mountain"

Marcos and his papa set off yesterday to scale the mountain in front of our house. It's about 300 m elevation change to the top and we didn't quite get there, but we were as close and we got some great pics along the way.

Here we are setting off from "base camp."

This forest is in the clouds many mornings. The trees are full of bromeliads and the rocky bits have lots of agaves. We think we even found an insectivorous plant, a sundew kind of thing with sticky leaves.

Our fearless leader chose a steep ascent.

A terrestrial orchid.

A milkweed receiving a butterfly.

There are great views out over the valley. Over Marcos' right shoulder are the hexagonal roofs of his school. Our house is just in back of the school, mostly hidden in the trees.

El colibrí rechoncho

This white-cheeked humming bird wasn´t in the book...

Bird banding

Last weekend I invited us to "help" our friends Laura and Esteban at their bird banding station in the hills outside San Cristóbal. They get there by 5 a.m. to get the nets up, but we showed up at a more leisurely 8:30(ish), when Laura said the peak bird activity would be. Their station is part of an international effort to document migratory bird populations in their winter habitat. They measure the birds and check indicators of age, reproductive status and energy reserves (i.e. fat).

Marcos was thrilled to see the critters up close and particularly enjoyed getting to release them after they´d had their physicals. Some of the hummers were low on energy after being stuck in the nets in the cold, so we revived them with sweetened water.

Noche buena

Following Guatemalan tradition, we opened presies on xmas eve, though we held off on the tamales until the next morning. Marcos got a book of string games (cat's cradle, Jacob's ladder, etc.) that he'd been asking for and it took several of us back a few decades. Here are Marcos and Tío Gil with their respective creations.

Happy holidays!